


Valid Testing

by ailes_de_cire



Category: Death Note, Naruto
Genre: Butting Heads, Crossover, Gen, Geniuses, Stubborn, The Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-03-27
Packaged: 2017-12-06 16:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/737731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ailes_de_cire/pseuds/ailes_de_cire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Also Known As 'Genius Traps'</p><p>A genius mind is logical, orderly. Results are only valid if they're repeatable. </p><p>L was able to narrow down his area of focus for the investigation going by Light's first use of the Death Note, but there was actually another chink in Kira's armour that would leave him wide open to discovery, one that was never explored by the manga or anime. One that Light himself unknowningly deduced while he had no memory of being Kira... </p><p>Shikamaru discovers it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Valid Testing

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer – Not mine and it won't ever be because I sadly lack both the time machine and drawing skills necessary for ownage.
> 
> 23/5 update: Okay, just adding this in: I have (finally) both gotten a tumblr and very recently actually started to use it. Follow me, badger me for updates, give me ideas, whatever - catch up to me at http://ailes-de-cire.tumblr.com/ --- I'll be looking forward to hearing from people :)

"Yes, I remember that night – couldn't forget it, no matter how much I've tried... he told me his name, it was Takuo Shibuimaru."

"Thank you, miss. Do you remember seeing any other people in the area, maybe someone that had been visiting the store, or passed you when you were being accosted?"

"I don't really know..."

"Please, miss. Any details you can add may be essential to our investigation. Anything at all."

"Well..."

"Yes?"

"I think... I mean, I remember this one teenager walking past me when that guy was harassing me before the accident. I only remember because of how horrible the situation was – no one responded to my shouts; the other people around only ignored me!" The woman scowled in consternation, lines lightly creasing her forehead in remembered stress and pain.

The Nara was not in the mood to make an attempt at pacifying the woman for the nature of humans in such situations – diffused responsibility and crowd mentalities study this was not. He had rather larger fish to fry. "Komura-san, please try to focus. Can you describe this bystander? Maybe you can remember something to help us identify them?"

The woman sniffed haughtily but nonetheless returned to her memory of the teen. "It was a guy, first of all. He had really good posture – I remember because I always get told to watch mine in deportment class – 'posture is key', they always said – stuck up old bats. The strangest thing about him was his hair – I swear, I've never seen a person with that orange hair before. He looked like a high school student – I think he had a backpack on him, or he was holding something. I don't really remember his face or anything, it was kind of handsome, I think."

Shikamaru isn't particularly surprised that the witness has remembered so much about this detail – Komura is the type to obsess over every detail of a stressful situation that she could; obsessive and paranoid enough to record everything she had thought or seen on the night in question, and is certainly the type to remember how a person held themselves. He would be unsurprised to find diaries and other such things hidden away in her room that she read occasionally to refresh her memory – she was strangely eager to be questioned about the incident by an investigator so long after the fact. He kept this deduction to himself, maintaining his neutral expression. "Thank you, Komura-san, your input may prove invaluable in this case."

As he moves to the door, she says, looking unsure "Oh, must you go so soon? You haven't even asked me about the actual accident yet! Don't you need to ask more questions?"

Shikamaru is annoyed, but again the feeling is fleeting. He spares a second to acknowledge that this mission and being in such close quarters with L is affecting his composure before turning back to her, slipping a hand in his pocket as he does, "Hm? Well now that you mention it, could I get you to have a look at this picture? Tell me what you think."

The woman takes the photograph he pulls out of his pocket, frowning. "...This-! This is that guy, I know it is! This is the teenager I saw that day!"

Her fingers turn white around the edges of the paper as she stares wide-eyed at the picture of Yagami Light.

Shikamaru allows a smirk to spread across his face in victory, reaching a hand back into his pocket to turn off the voice recording device that had been active for this meeting.

It had taken months to track down this particular case, this particular woman to ask the right questions that would finally find a chink in the armour that was Kira's original identity. The sheer number of deaths happening on that one day, the separate crime scenes need to be investigated such a long time from the original crime so as to provide a void of information on the cases. Uncooperative people, questionable information, and on top of this his first priority was that of acting as L's body guard and protector, not following leads so stale they may as well have been thrown out of the question.

But finally, against such long odds, he had caught Kira in the act, legitimately linked a crime to Yagami. Granted that it was through circumstantial evidence at best, and would not hold up in any court that assumed the innocence of the person accused and required proof of guilt, but this was the crucial missing link in a case that involved mystical elements beyond previous comprehension and as such required a different form of evidence and proof.

He had Yagami, in the area, knowing a name and face that had resulted in the death of a person commiting a criminal act. The death subverted the criminal activity taking place, right in front of the victim - a coincidence that was so unlikely as to the chance of it happening randomly was negligible.

Che. A 'random' death of a criminal, a mere thirty minutes after the very first murder attributed to the Death Note discerned through L's very own initial deductions.

Shikamaru knew it. You didn't run any experiment in isolation. If the first attempt, where the person responsible gave away their place of origin accidentally – a sign that they probably did not believe in the written abilities of the Death Note at first – and discovered that the 'heart attack' clause worked... well, it would only be logical to confirm the results, and testing if the control of 'accidental' deaths worked at the same time would only be a bonus. Killing two birds with one stone, as it were.

It was only what a person of a genius mind would do. It would have been illogical to assume anything about the powers of the Death Note without thorough testing. Some evidence of testing was attributed to the series of notes that L was left by prisoners killed in the very early days of Kira's attacks, but not all of it. Shikamaru knew that, for Kira to have such confidence in his abilities, he'd have had to see at least one in person.

And Shikamaru had just discovered the hidden victim number two. The victim that had been attributed to road accident death, before the investigators knew that the Death Note could kill in methods other than heart attack.

Shikamaru smirked to himself.

L couldn't ignore this.

**Author's Note:**

> So basically, the thing that I picked up that should have split Light's whole game apart was the deduction that the Death Note could kill through different means than just heart attacks. That SHOULD have caused the detectives to look back over the case, go through everything from the start again while applying this knowledge. It SHOULD have given L cause to look over every death on the same day as the original murder where Light killed the criminal over a locally reported tv station because basic rules of scientific experimentation states that results can not be conclusive if they cannot be proved repeatable - also, Kira would have felt the need to test the other powers of the Death Note - he certainly acted sure of its power when his campaign started. Light made a huge mistake killing the criminal in such a blatently obvious way - it should have gotten him caught. 
> 
> +Anyway+
> 
> This is only a part of this whole story I thought up that involved Shikamaru being hired as a ninja by L (in his usual paranoid, meticulous manner) to guard Kira HQ – mostly, to guard the team from Light and Misa. The whole story involves a lot of conflict between L and Shikamaru, because while they are both essentially trying to do the same thing, they both have supremely different methods and mindsets.
> 
> L flaunts regulations, is more than happy to smash apart ethical standards and laws – but can't stand to leave any stone unturned and would never risk unjustly convicting Light of being Kira (even though he totally knows he isn't wrong when he names Light as Kira).
> 
> Shikamaru, however, as a ninja (and genius as well, which is bound to add conflict by itself) essentially is trained to go with gut instincts, and firmly holds no compunctions with killing when the situation requires. He's also, very firmly, a big picture kind of guy (what with his brilliance at Shougi and strategic planning) and I think he'd be willing to murder Light if the possible benefits outweighed the consequences of error – and they definitely would in such a huge mass-murder case like Kira.


End file.
